


Gang Activity

by MelyndaR



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/M, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-28 02:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13894401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: “We don’t really date of the Isle; it’s more like… gang activity.”Mal had told Ben that over a year ago, and he’d taken it as a flippant remark that didn’t really mean much. It wasn’t until later, when he was on the Isle himself at the start of a heated battle, observing Mal and her old friends together that he, with terrible timing, began to wonder if there might not be more to that remark.





	1. Chapter 1

_“We don’t really date of the Isle; it’s more like… gang activity.”_

Mal had told Ben that over a year ago, and he’d taken it as a flippant remark that didn’t really mean much. It wasn’t until later, when he was on the Isle himself at the start of a heated battle, observing Mal and her old friends together that he, with terrible timing, began to wonder if there might not be more to that remark. It had already crossed his mind…

 _Harry openly invading their personal space in a way that felt_ very personal, _Uma and Mal sharing looks that, for some reason, made Ben feel as if he ought to turn away, Uma stopping everything she was doing just to help Gil to his feet._

He was thinking about it even after the battle, as they rode home to Auradon.

 _But surely it’s not actually like… mass dating?!_ Ben thought to himself. _Sure, Harry and Uma were definitely a thing, and Gil had a thing for both of the pirates, but that didn’t mean that the_ three _of them were a thing, did it? Just because they shared intense looks, and put up with each other, and clearly cared and touched one another as often as they felt was possible… After all, Uma, Harry, and Gil together were no worse than Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos toge—_

And that thought, Ben realized, was the one that he had been subconsciously dancing around ever since… well, sort of from the first time he’d met Auradon’s first “villain” kids. Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos _were_ very close, and on a subconscious level, maybe Ben had always wondered _how_ close the quartet had always been to one another.

But it wasn’t as if he was going to ask.

Even if the thought twisted inside of his head, taking on a different tone – and maybe even different reasoning – the longer he thought about it. And, truth be told, he thought about it for weeks.

He thought about it when Jay swung his arm around Mal’s shoulders and squeezed her close to his side, something Ben had seen him do a hundred times (even though Mal still wrinkled her nose in protest part of the time). He thought about it when Jane pushed a new checklist across his desk, her eyes sparkling as she talked about what her latest project – _“no, I need your help with this one; it’s_ our _project – your highness”_ – entailed. He thought about it when he and Evie bent their heads together over her tenth rendition of her list of villain kids to come to Auradon – _her hair matched the color of his royal suits perfectly, and she laughed, and maybe even blushed a little, when he suggested that as proof that, yes, she really was a natural at this._ He thought about it when he woke himself up sweating in the middle of the night, dreams of the spell Uma had put on him – _of her lips on his, and he liked it, and he wasn’t sure it had anything to do with a spell_ – so real he thought he was under her power again.

He thought about it more than ever when he realized that at some point Mal and Carlos had started to watch him as he watched Jane, and watched them all with each other.

They were sitting in Jay and Carlos’ room – all of them, Mal, Evie, Jane, Carlos, Jay, Lonnie, himself, and even Doug – working on various bits of official business (himself, Evie, and Jane) and homework (everyone else) when he looked up from Evie’s list to find most of the room watching the three of them. Doug shot Mal a look, and Carlos rolled his eyes as Ben asked innocently, “What?”

Carlos and Jay both looked to Mal now, but for once Ben’s girlfriend seemed hesitant to speak. He was pretty sure he heard her mutter something about “not opening that can of worms” though.

“Am I doing it again?” Evie asked suddenly, her eyes wide and worried as she hastily retreated from where she’d been leaning over the table so that she, too, could see the list the three of them had been discussing.

The question seemed mostly directed at Doug, and he answered carefully, suddenly seeming not at all annoyed – _if he ever had been,_ Ben wasn’t sure. “Well,” he shoved his glasses further up on his nose. “Yes. _But_ ,” he stressed, moving to put his hand on Evie’s shoulder as she started to shrink further back into her chair. “It’s not just you. It’s…”

He trailed off, and Ben felt thoroughly confused, looking between Mal and Evie and feeling concerned about both of them for vastly different reasons. Ben had seen Evie like this only once before – when Audrey had accused her of flirting with Chad still, even though Evie was now with Doug, and Audrey and Chad had just gotten back together. When Evie had been worried that she was slipping back into old and supposedly “villainous” habits. He shook his head quickly, hoping to solve at least Evie’s problem, if it was what he thought it was. “You weren’t flirting at all. Promise.”

He smiled encouragingly, but his smile froze in place when Mal stepped up to the table, tracing a single fingertip from his wrist all the way down to the tip of his middle finger. She cleared her throat as he realized that he had been absently drawing figure-eights on the back of Jane’s hand while she leaned against the table. Jane gasped openly, jerked away from the table more violently then Evie had.

Mal sighed. “Ben’s wrong, E; even though I don’t think you realized it, you were flirting… but I don’t mind. And I think we all need to talk about some of this, because it’s been happening a lot since you visited the Isle, Ben.”

“And not just with you, bud,” Jay assured him, looking between Ben and Mal from where he was sitting cross-legged with Lonnie on his bed.

“So…” Ben sat back in his chair, tried to survey the room, and to meet Mal’s eyes especially, with the same confidence he would a group of unruly petitioners. Even though he didn’t feel at all confident at the moment. “What do you want to talk about exactly?”


	2. Chapter 2

There was a moment of silence, where no one seemed exactly sure how to start the impending conversation. “Dating, I guess,” Carlos said.

Ben nodded, met Mal’s eyes as he suggested pointedly, “I think it might once have been described to me as ‘gang activity?’”

Mal didn’t even blink, but he saw her eyes widen oh so slightly as they both recalled their first date. “Yeah,” she admitted on a sigh. “That.”

“What about it?” Ben asked, willing to listen, to try to understand what she was thinking and where she wanted this to go, if only any of them could find a way to actually talk about it.

Mal hesitated, and she and Evie both looked like deer caught in headlights.

“Come here,” Dough beckoned Evie to sit beside him on the bed with Carlos, and she went, letting him put his arms around her.

She was still acting small, still afraid she’d done something “wrong,” but Ben got the feeling that wasn’t his problem to fix at the moment. In any case, Doug hugged her close, whispered into her ear what Ben could’ve sworn was an “I love you.” His “problem,” so-called, was the girl who nearly plopped into the chair that Evie had vacated. He took Mal’s hand in his, and she played with his fingers as she thought some more, then sighed before glancing sideways at Jay and asking, “How are we actually supposed to talk about this?”

Jay opened his mouth, closed it while looking suddenly helpless, and then shrugged.

There was another beat of silence, and once again Carlos broke it by asking suddenly, “Do you know what’s really kinda hot?”

Jane arched her eyebrows at him in surprise, asking slowly, “What?”

“A lady with a sword.”

Ben could tell by looking at Carlos as Carlos looked at Jane that the remark had cost him dearly – Cruella’s son was afraid of what might be coming next – but Jay just snorted, muttering loudly enough for them all to hear, “Called it.”

“Called what?” Mal asked, suddenly turning around in her chair to face him. “How can we ‘call’ anything like that when we can’t even talk about it in this land of bibbiddi-bobbiddi happily ever after with my one and only true love?!”

“Mal?” Ben asked softly.

He went unnoticed as Jay suggested, “Because we still grew up the way we grew up, and the idea of loving one person and only that one person seems very dangerous and stupid and boring?”

“I would like it very much if someone explained something plainly right now,” Ben said, only he didn’t realize he’d done more than just think it until Mal looked back at him again, and this time her sigh was one of resignation.

“Once upon a time,” she began. “On an island where children were taught that loyalty was only to yourself or maybe an overlord, but that there was at least strength in numbers, there lived children. And these children were taught that happily ever after – and true love – didn’t exist.”

“But strength in numbers did,” Lonnie murmured, catching onto what was most important in what Mal was saying.

“Uh-huh.” Mal continued without missing a beat, “And once upon a time there lived a girl on this isle who would kiss royals and pirates and thieves… sometimes all in the same day. Because while she wasn’t sure she loved any of them, there was strength in numbers, growing up there, and at the very least these were her people and they could and would look out for one another.” She seemed to catch up with what she’d said, and closed her mouth, looking back down at hers and Ben’s hands again as she talked. “And that was dating on the Isle.”

“Dating a thief,” Lonnie said, clearing considering the idea as she glanced between Jay and Mal.

“And a royal,” Doug piped up.

“Who were the pirates?” Jane asked curiously.

Instinctively, Ben knew, and he answered word for word alongside Mal: “Harry Hook and Uma, Ursula’s daughter.”

Evie had uncurled from Doug’s arms the longer they talked, and now she glanced at the list that lay underneath Ben’s arm. She had whittled it down a lot, Ben knew, but he also knew some of the people who had been at the top of her list from the very beginning, and they were there still. Right below Dizzy Tremaine’s name were:

_Uma, daughter of Ursula_

_Harry, son of Captain Hook_

_Gil, son of Gaston_

Ben’s father might just turn back into a beast if he found out that Ben had actually agreed to bring a son of Gaston to Auradon, he mused, but now, at least, he understood why Evie had consistently wanted to bring those three over.

_Was she thinking of doing it for Mal’s sake?_

“I am going to be in so much trouble for all of this,” he said aloud.

“For what?” Of all of the kids in the room, it was Lonnie who asked the question, and Ben _knew_ he saw a spark of mischief – _she could be so like her mother sometimes_ – in her eyes.

“Evie, we’ve talked before about how I only want to bring four kids to Auradon at a time, right?

“Yes?” she looked confused, and he didn’t blame her; he was taking the long way around this topic, but he deserved to be dramatic sometimes.

“If you’re okay with it, I’ve made the decision on which four will be the second group coming to Auradon – Dizzy, Gil, Uma, and Harry.”

Everyone looked confused now, but there were some smiles flitting around the group, and Evie nodded, seeming to regain her usual confidence as she practically beamed at him. _Probably,_ he suspected, _mostly for Dizzy’s sake,_ but Ben didn’t mind in the least thanks to what he knew of the girls’ relationship from Mal.

“But that’s definitely not all I’d be willing to be in trouble for,” Ben admitted.

He glanced at Mal, just long enough to see that she _got it_ , and then between Doug and Evie, the former of whom nodded and loosened his hold on his girlfriend very slightly as Ben stood up. _Here went nothing._


End file.
